The Microsurgery Core will provide expertise and quality control over animal transplantation models for[unreadable] Projects by Tellides, Pober, Min, and Bender of the program. The core unit will serve as a central resource to utilize the human artery transplantation models in immunodeficient mouse chimeras that have been developed at Yale[unreadable] University. Double-mutant severe combined immunodeficient (SCID)/beige mice are grafted with human or[unreadable] synthetic arteries and are subsequently immunologically reconstituted with an adoptive transfer of human[unreadable] leukocytes and/or are treated with human cytokines, such as the species-specific Th1 factor, interferon-gamma[unreadable] (IFN-y). The interactions of the leukocytes or cytokines with the graft vascular cells results in immunemediated[unreadable] arterial injury in a surrogate human experimental model. Additionally, various mouse recipient[unreadable] strains are grafted with mouse aorta segments to take advantage of the power of murine genetic models to[unreadable] supplement the human tissue data. The Microsurgery Core will also develop and adapt the artery graft[unreadable] models according to Project requirements, e.g. developing a Rag1 mutant rat recipient to study remodeling[unreadable] in larger primary branches of human epicardial coronary arteries. All four projects will be supported by the[unreadable] Microsurgery Core. The aims of the Microsurgery Core are:1) to provide the complex small animal[unreadable] transplantation models to the Program investigators; 2) to develop new methods for improving or adapting[unreadable] the in vivo models; and 3) to provide a microsurgery training resource for investigators in vascular and[unreadable] transplantation biology. The methodology of the human artery-SCID/beige mouse transplantation model is[unreadable] relatively complex and requires shared facilities and special skills. The Microsurgery Core personnel have[unreadable] extensive experience with the required techniques and their combined expertise is essential to ensure[unreadable] consistency of the models and an economy of scale. By providing the artery graft models to all of the[unreadable] projects, the Microsurgery Core will play a key role in this program.[unreadable]